Disclaimer: These interviews are not associated with a-m-v.org, and do not reflect the opinions of its administration.

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Description

Welcome to the Lip Flapper! Each week, we delve deep into the community and get a good look into both individual members as well as group discussions on various issues that surround our hobby.

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This Week in "The Lip Flapper"

This week is all about AMV contests and conventions! We talk with contest and convention coordinators, people who have been to conventions, those that judge AMV contests, and naturally just everything about them!

We have a 4 part series, finished up with an AMV Review on Friday with an action video that doesn't suck!

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The Panel

As someone that has attended an anime convention, what's the best part about it that makes you want to suggest to others to attend one?

For those that attend AMV Contests for the viewing/voting, what's the best/worst parts about the contests, and how can they be improved upon? As an audience member, do you vote for the *best* video, or the video that you liked the most?

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AngelDragoon wrote:While I haven't attended very many conventions, I think those of any size become worth attending not only because of the events, but also due to the atmosphere both the staff and the attendees give. Generally I'll attend a convention because of what's going on, but if the staff is friendly for the majority of the convention, things are highly organized, and the atmosphere is a fun, pleasant environment, I will definitely recommend it to others and most likely attended again.

For those that attend AMV Contests for the viewing/voting, what's the best/worst parts about the contests, and how can they be improved upon? As an audience member, do you vote for the *best* video, or the video that you liked the most?

I think one of the most important parts of any AMV contest is the viewing experience. Is the lighting dim enough to see the details of the video on screen, particularly during dark scenes? Is the sound system loud enough to be heard clearly, but soft enough not to make a person's ears bleed? For the most part these technical aspects among others are what aid in enjoying the contest the most. Some things, like some audience member's talking loudly during AMVs that might bore them, are unavoidable, but they do influence whether a contest can be fully enjoyed and some videos properly voted for. (Props to any contest coordinator who's ever kicked out an obnoxious viewer, though). Every contest is run differently and I think they all have their pros and cons that can be enhanced and improved upon. One detail I've noticed from the contests I've attended is organization and being prepared before the contest. I know that setting up an entire contest is a lot of work and that problems happen, but it seems a vast majority of contests could improve on testing things ahead of time to make sure everything runs smoothly. Sometimes last minute checks are unavoidable, especially if a contest gets moved from one room to another, but at times it seems like things are left half done for various reason that could have been avoided, (place cards for videos not written up until right before the viewing, voting ballots not double checked so that the contest has to be stopped to correct them, etc). As for the actual voting, “best” is certainly relative if you have well matched AMVs technically. If I think it's the best then I'll probably end up liking it the most, but someone else might think otherwise.

kireblue wrote:Speaking as just a regular attendee, anime conventions are fun because they're specifically tailored to my inner geek/nerd. When I'm at a anime convention, I get to be around thousands of people that have similar interests with me, and make new friends every time. And as a added bonus, I get to meet my favorite voice actors in person and even ask them questions. I'd suggest that even casual anime fans go to at least one convention and see how they like it. For me, AWA 2007 was my first anime convention, and it was a truly amazing experience.

Since then, I've attended many more conventions and even staffed/ hosted various events and panels during them. But my favorite part of going to a anime convention is meeting other AMV editors, and participating in various AMV related events. I love being able to hang out with editors from around country, and its always fun to meet people that you've only been able to communicate with online. More and more conventions are becoming AMV hotspots, but my favorites are definitely AWA and Otakon.

And in terms of their AMV contests, it truly is a overwhelmingly amazing feeling whenever you get to see one of you videos on the big screen with sometimes hundreds or even thousands of other observers. You also get to watch with your friends some of the newest AMVs submitted by editors from all over the world. Most of the contests that I attend are decided by judges, but there are a few like Otakon that are decided by the audience. And when I attend those kind of contests, I use three factors to decide what video gets my vote. The first factor is matching the theme/ category, second is how skillfully the video was edited, and third is how much I enjoyed watching it.

ngsilver wrote:For anime conventions, the things that make me want to suggest them other others is the overall atmosphere and people there. Often guests, events, and what not either suck, I can see them elsewhere, or I've seen them a dozen times. It's often the people that you find to hang out with or the people you normally hang out with that makes the experience enjoyable.

For AMV Contests, I find the best part of a contest is really just seeing all the videos. For me the worst part is seeing videos that I don't enjoy, or coordinators who don't know enough about the source material (amvs) that in turn make the final product shown at the con very low quality (bad audio/video) that will detract from the experience. These things can of course be improved upon by the coordinators learning more about the hobby, their editors, and about maintaining quality throughout the whole process so that the final product shown at the con will be the best. Nothing has urked me more as a creator and viewer then going to a con where they took digital submissions and then recorded the contest to VHS to be played at the con.....

As an audience member, I do often vote on which video I enjoyed the most. After all, the best video in a contest to me is the video that I enjoyed the most. I just feel wrong giving my vote to a video that maybe deserves the win more because it's better edited, has higher quality, ect when another video I clearly enjoyed more and would be more inclined to watch more often.

Nya-Chan Production wrote:People. People are the best part. If you go to the con alone, GRAB SOMEONE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN! Nothing on the con ever compares to the talking in some side room (or just in the middle of the hall on the ground) the Whole. Night.

Regarding the viewing - the best part is seeing your video on the screen, of course. The worst part? Seeing some horrible video withmany mistakes get voted upon by fangirls because it features "that pair" (no matter what pair it is) and overlooking some great work.It usually can't be improved much. The local one, maybe, could give the winners some sort of speech, but really - it just depends on the con ^^As an audience member, I vote for the best video, obviously. Voted for my video there a few times as well, usually when the competition was really weak - I don't find it wrong, especially if you can take your bias/sentiment off of your video.

irriadin wrote:The best part of attending an anime convention is the chance to hang out with friends that are also into anime / manga / Japanese culture and meet new people that share the same interests. That's saying nothing about the dealer's room, panels, game room, video premieres, industry guests, or contests! Especially at the bigger conventions, there is something for everyone to enjoy.

The best part of a well-run AMV contest is the joy of sitting in a theater-sized room with a ton of like-minded people and enjoying the experience of seeing great AMV's displayed on a huge screen. There's a palpable sense of excitement that's hard to put into words, but is an absolutely incredible rush of emotions, particularly when you have a video in the contest.

The worst part about a well-run contest is largely negligible and outside of the control of the organizers, but... well, most of the time, it's very easy to figure out which video is going to be the crowd favorite and take it all. Sometimes the video is deserving of the award, and sometimes not. You can't really blame people for liking certain things, though. Crowds that like comedy will be inclined to vote for any video that contains comedic moments, even if that video is in Drama or Action. The only way to combat this is to make sure that videos get assigned to proper categories.

When I vote, I always vote for the video I thought was best. Most of the time it's also the video I personally liked the most, as well. Even if I have a video in the contest, if I find another video in the category to be better, I will vote for it..

BasharOfTheAges wrote:I honestly attend cons to run my panels and hang out with my friends that I only get to see at cons. Most of the people in my studio live several hours away from me and cons are the only times we get to hang out and have fun. As far as the content goes, I'm not terribly enthused by a lot of it. I don't watch dubs, so I couldn't care less about most guests that work in the industry. I enjoy hitting up Artist alleys and buying stuff from the talented folks there. I'm almost always on the look-out for scenery paintings – something I can stick on my wall as an adult.

For those that attend AMV Contests for the viewing/voting, what's the best/worst parts about the contests, and how can they be improved upon? As an audience member, do you vote for the *best* video, or the video that you liked the most?

My biggest complaints about contest screenings is when the audio is too loud or distorted. You can't get into a good mood and feel out the nuances of videos if they're cranking the volume and killing the dynamic range.

As for voting, If I really liked something, I'll vote for it. Here's the catch though, a significant part of my enjoyment of a video does come from how well it's made. I'll also freely admit that, all things being equal, I'll vote for a studio-mate over some other equally deserving video as a tie-breaker. It's human nature.

diegao94 wrote:I hope to attend an anime convention with a lot of AMV editors, someday

x2

People here is enthusiasmatic about anime, but every time the AMV Contests comes, it's hard for me to meet AMV Editors from my part. So that's the reason I should visit one day AWA, since I heard that contest has a big amount of amvers there, or is there any other contest which have bigger amounts?

I think when you talk to anyone about going to conventions the one thing they will enjoy the most is their friends/hanging out...

I'm fairly anti-social so I've not made any friends at my local con. Also, I'm sure that I come off more as a "parent chauffeuring a kid around" than some one who is interested in anime so no one talks to me. Besides most of the attendees are half my age, so very few are gonna want to talk to me. And, I'm not really a cosplayer (anymore - I'd love to get back into it, but stuffs gonna have to wait). Cosplay is really big at the local con.

I go because my nieces and nephews want to go to cons, so I take them to the local one. I think they want to go because they heard how much fun I had at AWA they want to attend cons. I'd LOVE to go to AWA again. XD I miss you guys!

As for AMV contests: I think technical issues are really what can ruin a viewing experience. A pool of bad amvs second to technical issues.

My first time at A-kon the technical issues were fairly bad! From bad audio to the fact several videos were playing in black and white. They worked out the issues the next year. But hanging out with the awesome people who were there totally made up for it!

Don't get me started with the experience I had at ACEN (with the 10+ hour reg line)... moving the contest to a different room at the last minute is really terrible, most people didn't know where it was going to be, so there were few people there. We missed the first few videos because we were wondering the con looking for it.

One of the local cons here though, the contest was an hour and a half+ late due to the fact they didn't have the right codecs to play the files. Then they changed computers, (with tons of pops and crackling) which didn't seem to want to work, then when they finally got it going, the videos were cropped all weird. The program they were using to show the computer screen managed to crop off 1/3 of the video frame. They even adjusted it in the middle of one of my videos. The con is held at a hotel with a hockey rink, so they show the videos on the gigantic led screen. I guess I'll see how they do this year. O.o

As for voting, at the local cons, I've not voted. The first local con I went to my videos dominated the pool (I had more videos than anyone else it seems), so I really didn't feel I should have voted. I let my niece vote though, and told her to vote for the one she liked best. The second local con they just gave out prizes (changed the rules at the last minute) to the ones they liked, I assume. They were really disorganized. As for other cons they were either judged or I just voted for the one I liked most. If the video is entertaining I will like it.

Concerning the conventions, they sound like a lot of fun! Never been to one myself but I've put in a video for a convention. . . Got some publicity because of that, so I thought that was pretty cool (Even though I didn't win, I really did wish I could've seen my Sweet Serendipity on the big screen ). Anyway, I'm curious, are there discounts on dvds at conventions or are they there for fun??

Concerning the conventions, they sound like a lot of fun! Never been to one myself but I've put in a video for a convention. . . Got some publicity because of that, so I thought that was pretty cool (Even though I didn't win, I really did wish I could've seen my Sweet Serendipity on the big screen ). Anyway, I'm curious, are there discounts on dvds at conventions or are they there for fun??

lloyd9988 wrote: Anyway, I'm curious, are there discounts on dvds at conventions or are they there for fun??

DVD's and Blu-rays are generally not a good thing to buy at cons, because you can *usually* get them cheaper online. There are exceptions... like last year at Otakon, Bandai and Aniplex were offering prices better than what you can get at Rightstuf or Amazon. But that's a rarity.

irriadin wrote:DVD's and Blu-rays are generally not a good thing to buy at cons, because you can *usually* get them cheaper online. There are exceptions... like last year at Otakon, Bandai and Aniplex were offering prices better than what you can get at Rightstuf or Amazon. But that's a rarity.

You can get REALLY good deals on manga, however.

Hmm. . . guess just going there will have to be a deciding factor or not Thanks

Gah I'm at a buridan's ass situation... I was able to get a pass for my local convention, however it sold out before any of my friends were able to get one. I do love going to these and already have the time off and all that, However I'd be going alone (and without a room, but its only a 45 minute drive away). I'm not a very social person, so its not like It'd be easy to just find a group and join them there... So I either go alone, or I sell my pass and do something different with the money (they are selling for 3 to 4 times as much as they cost! they really underestimated the amount of people who want to go!) What sucks is it feels like I'm going to do neither

"Uhmmm... You know... it was at that point that I realized that maybe Thierry wasn't actually a film maker, and he was maybe just someone with mental problems who happened to have a camera. " -Banksy

zibbazabba905 wrote:Gah I'm at a buridan's ass situation... I was able to get a pass for my local convention, however it sold out before any of my friends were able to get one. I do love going to these and already have the time off and all that, However I'd be going alone (and without a room, but its only a 45 minute drive away). I'm not a very social person, so its not like It'd be easy to just find a group and join them there... So I either go alone, or I sell my pass and do something different with the money (they are selling for 3 to 4 times as much as they cost! they really underestimated the amount of people who want to go!) What sucks is it feels like I'm going to do neither

what convention are you talking about? Are you sure that they sold out of all registrations? Or did they just sell out of pre-registrations?

BasharOfTheAges wrote:My biggest complaints about contest screenings is when the audio is too loud or distorted. You can't get into a good mood and feel out the nuances of videos if they're cranking the volume and killing the dynamic range.

Volume can get painful.

The order of categories and number of categories can also impact the flow of a contest a lot for me (though I am attention deficit, so it may not affect others in the same way). If comedy is left until the end of a contest, upbeat should break up some of the heavier categories so the middle of the contest doesn't drag.

Very cold AMV rooms can also be a problem.... but I think that's a matter that's in the hands of the convention centers/hotels, so kinda irrelevant here.